To shrink the drive, go to Start menu, right-click Computer and select Manage. Under Storage click Disk Management. Figure 2.5a shows an example of a system running Windows 7. In this example, Windows has created three partitions: a 16GB recovery partition, a 100MB system partition, and a 450GB data partition.

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'''Figure 2.5a: Viewing Disk Layout in Disk Management'''

[[File:Shrink.jpeg]]

[[File:Shrink.jpeg]]

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'''NOTE:''' if you plan to dual-boot with Windows, it is important that you do not choose to install PC-BSD into any of these three partitions when you get to the [[Disk_Selection_Screen]].

PC-BSD does not come with a built-in partition manager as the installer assumes that the drive is already prepared for an installation. If you are not planning to install PC-BSD onto the entire hard drive, you will need to use a third-party application in order to prepare a primary partition to install PC-BSD into.

NOTE: PC-BSD will not install into a secondary or logical partition, it must be a primary partition.

Before creating or editing your hard drive's partitions, make sure that you first back up your valuable data to an external media such as a removable USB drive!

Shrinking a Drive in Windows 7

If you are currently running Windows 7, it is using the entire hard drive. This means that you will need to first shrink the drive in order to make room to create a new partition.

To shrink the drive, go to Start menu, right-click Computer and select Manage. Under Storage click Disk Management. Figure 2.5a shows an example of a system running Windows 7. In this example, Windows has created three partitions: a 16GB recovery partition, a 100MB system partition, and a 450GB data partition.

Figure 2.5a: Viewing Disk Layout in Disk Management

NOTE: if you plan to dual-boot with Windows, it is important that you do not choose to install PC-BSD into any of these three partitions when you get to the Disk_Selection_Screen.